Business of the House

Greg Smith Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

As my hon. Friend deftly points out, there is a fairly narrow tightrope to walk here. We need to ensure that the House of Lords gets its opportunity to scrutinise legislation, whatever it happens to be, in the way that it is constitutionally set up to; but there is a concern, shared by many Members of this House, about the effect that this scrutiny can have, especially when this place feels strongly about an issue. I think he is referring to the assisted dying Bill, which this House passed. As I have said before at business questions, I expect the upper House to take into consideration the fact that we, the elected House, supported it, and other measures.

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

Does the Leader of the House seriously think it is reasonable for the Government to announce a new framework that will have a profound effect on Mid Buckinghamshire—and indeed every constituency represented in this House, not least as regards food security—by written ministerial statement, rather than through an oral statement in the Chamber, which would allow scrutiny by Members from all parties? Will he reflect on that, particularly as Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Question Time continues to be just 40 minutes long, rather than a full hour? Will he ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to make a full oral statement in the House about the framework?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I will consider that request. The hon. Gentleman makes a point that others have made about DEFRA questions; given the circumstances in which we find ourselves, they ask whether we should look at how much time Departments get for questions. That can change over time. We should make sure that the length of departmental questions reflect the circumstances. There is also a balance to be struck when it comes to oral statements in the Chamber. There are important matters that this House has to debate, and how many oral statements are necessary is a bit of a moot question. There are ways that he can find out the answers that he wants, other than waiting for an oral statement from the Government; for example, he could ask for a Westminster Hall debate.